Rev William Barber, a left-leaning pastor and social activist, has condemned the “brutal, ugly” murder of Charlie Kirk while calling for a broader denunciation of political violence on all sides. Barber, leader of the “Moral Monday” events staged by Repairing The Breach, also appeared to criticise the rightwing political activist’s brand of Christianity.
Barber spoke out against the killing of Kirk – an ally of Donald Trump – during an online event commemorating the anniversary of the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, by the Ku Klux Klan. That attack killed four young girls and was described by Martin Luther King as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity”.
Implicitly linking that event to recent violent episodes, Barber said: “This past week, there was a brutal, ugly, on-camera assassination of brother Charlie Kirk and we must all despise it. … All of us should denounce it and pray for the family and stand against this viciousness and violence of his murder.” But he added: “If you didn’t get bothered by the political death that’s happening in this country … until the other day, this must be challenged too, according to our deepest faith tradition.”
Barber contrasted Trump’s attempts to blame political violence solely on leftwing rhetoric with his infamous boast during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he said he could shoot someone in New York’s Fifth Avenue without losing support. “We must cry against threats of political violence in all of its forms, even things like a president saying, ‘I can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose any followers,’” said Barber.
Barber also challenged the rightwing Christian beliefs espoused by many of Trump’s supporters, including Kirk, labelling it “religious nationalism”. He said: “Religion [or] morality that claims love for God, or love for justice but says nothing about injustice … this is religious nationalism, and it’s not true faith, according to the scriptures. … It is a dangerous kind of religion because it is an attempt to sanctify wrong.”
He also denounced, without naming him, Brian Kilmeade, a Fox News Host, who provoked a storm of online outrage after suggesting on air that mentally ill homeless people should be given an “involuntary lethal injection”. Barber and fellow activists have been arrested three times in the US Capitol this year after trying to stage Moral Monday demonstrations against the economic impact of Trump’s policies.
